Football shoe with attachment for kicking



Dec. 8, 1953 R. A. HYDE ET AL FOOTBALL SHOE WITH ATTACHMENT FOR KICKING Filed Nov. 28, 1951 Patented Dec. 8, 1953 2,661,547 FOOTBALL SHOE WITH ATTACHMENT F R I KICKING Ralph A. Hyde, Cambridge, and Frank-Views, Bedford, Mass, assignors toA; R. Hyde &-Sons Company, Cambridge, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application November 28, 1951, Serial'No.

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a football shoe which is provided with an attachment to facilitate the kicking of a football. When a football is kicked, the portion of the shoe which actually engages the ball is convex since the entire forward portion of the shoe upper is convex. Hence, the shoe must meet the ball accurately or the latter will carom off in some direction other than that intended. It is an object of the present invention to enable the player to kick a football further than he can with an ordinary football shoe and to control more reliably the direction in which the football will go. To this end .an attachment is secured to the shoe worn on the kicking foot, the attachment being a sort of superstructure secured to the margins of the sole which project out from the side edges of the vamp and toe of the shoe. The attachment has side walls rising from the welts, these walls being connected by a top piece which is concave. Thus a shallow pocket is provided on the top of the foot to receive the football when it is kicked.

For a more complete understanding of the invention, reference maybe had to the following description thereof, and to the drawing, of which- Figure 1 is a plan view of a football shoe with an embodiment of the invention thereon;

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same;

Figure 3 is a section on the line 33 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the superstructure itself; and

Figure 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of the toe portion of the shoe.

The drawing illustrates in outline a conventional football shoe having an upper ID of any desired construction, and a sole [2 with cleats l4 mounted thereon. The upper is provided with the usual eyelets [6 for the laces by which the shoe is secured on the foot.

According to the invention, a superstructure is mounted on the forward portion of the shoe, being stitched or otherwise secured directly to margins and 22 of the toe and ball portions of the sole I2. The superstructure may be made of any suitable material which is sufiiciently stiff and tough for the purpose, such as sole leather, a molded plastic, hard rubber, or an equivalent. As shown, the superstructure comprises a top portion 24 which is supported by side walls 26 and 28 over the forward portion of the shoe. The top portion has a relatively narrow end 30 located approximately over the tip 32 of the sole. This tlp, instead of being rounded as usual to follow 2 the contour of the bottom edge of the upper at the toe of the shoe, may be widened, as shown in Figure 5, to present a straight transverse edge of substantial length at the toe of the shoe.

The top portion 24 of the superstructure flares toward the rear end of the shoe, approximately following the widening of the upper as far back as the break 34 of the shoe, this top portion being concave upward so as to form a shallow trough between the side edges.

The side walls 26 and 28 which support the top portion 21} rise substantially vertically from projecting margins 20 and 22 of the toe and ball portions of the sole l2. 'Ihese side walls have flanges 36 and 38 along their lower edges. The flanges are stitched or otherwise secured on the margins 28 and 22 of the sole or on the welt 40 if the shoe is of welt construction, and extend from points near the extremity of the sole to points at the sides of the sole wel1 forward of the break of the shoe, that is, the transverse line of flexing of the sole when the shoe is worn in walking. Each side Wall has a wing 42 extending to the rear of the flange 36 or 38, so that the upper edge of each side wall is considerably longer than the flange on the lower edge thereof. This gives added length and area to the top portion 24, the rear edge 44 of which, however, is preferably cut in a concave curve so that it will more nearly fit the instep of the foot. Near the mid portion of the rear edge 44 of the top 24, a pair of eyelets 46 may be provided through which the shoe lace on the shoe may be threaded. When the shoe is laced up, the lace will anchor the rear end of the superstructure to the instep portion of the shoe and will thus steady the superstructure, especially against lateral thrusts which would tend to distort it.

The superstructure may be a single piece of suitably molded or otherwise shaped material. The embodiment illustrated on the drawing is made up of three pieces of stiff material such as sole leather which are joined by lines of stitching 50 and 52. The upper edges of the side walls 26 and 28 are skived and are stitched to the side edges of the top member 24 which are also skived.

Various modifications and changes may be made to the structure embodying the invention without departing from the scope thereof as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In combination with a football shoe having an upper and a sole, a superstructure having a top member extending from over the front of the toe of the shoe to over the instep, said top memher being in the form of a, shallow transversely concave trough extending longitudinally of the shoe with side edges diverging from front to rear and with the lowest portion of said trough-con- 3 122 4 tacting the shoe therebelow, and tWo upstanding 535'816 side walls supporting said top member, thelower- 2 0911223 edges of said side walls being secured to margins f 1 of the ball portion of the sole.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1, said superstructure being made of sole leather. 10 Numbelh 3. The combination set forth in claim-2, said- 18,195

superstructure consisting of three separate pieces of leather stitched together, the upper edges-of the side walls being stitched :to theside'edgesot the top member. 15 .1

RALPH A. HYDE. FRANK.VIE'IAS.-=-

4 References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Boughey Feb. 7, 1950 Cushman Mar. 19, 1895 Binder Aug. :24, 1937 Herfnson Feb. "8, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain July 22, 1893 

